Tories to put working families first in 2007

David Cameron says 2007 will be when Labour's "dark side comes to the fore"

Sunday, 31 December 2006
12:00 AM

The Conservatives will portray themselves as the party for the working families of Britain with new policies designed to revitalise social mobility, the party's leader has announced.

In his new year message, David Cameron writes that the government has backtracked on promises to help people from all backgrounds prosper in society and has made the situation worse since coming to power in 1997.

The Tory leader says Gordon Brown, widely-tipped to take over from prime minister Tony Blair in the next 12 months, will rely on the politics of "fear and division" to introduce new taxes that will further harm social mobility in Britain.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Mr Cameron depicts the chancellor as the "dark side" of Labour.

"Council tax and utility bills keep going up, and it's becoming harder for families to make ends meet. But next year Gordon Brown will pile on the pressure with still more tax rises," he claims.

The Conservative party under Mr Cameron's stewardship has faced criticism for a lack of genuine policies, and the appointment of shadow home secretary David Davis to lead a new social mobility taskforce will initially do little to change this perception.

But Mr Davis has pledged to "make 2007 the year the Conservative party gets to grips with social mobility", claiming that "when it comes to opportunities for the least well off, our society is flat-lining".

And the leader himself says his party will continue its move into the centre ground of British politics in the coming year.

"In 2007, we must move into a new gear - setting out in detail our clear, positive alternative to a Labour government whose incompetence and untrustworthiness is beginning to disgust the working people it was elected to serve," Mr Cameron concluded.